Makeover package for Bear Access is coming in June

By Beth Goelzer Lyons

Get ready for the new Bear Access -- Cornell's package of network services -- coming in June.

On the outside, Bear Access will have a completely new look. On the inside, it will be more powerful and simpler for Cornell Information Technologies and the other service providers to keep up to date.

The new Bear Access Viewer is a window of icon buttons and folders, representing all of the current services. The most popular services are located at the top. To access a service, the user simply clicks the button or opens the folder.

Several features have been added in response to feedback from the Cornell community. Users will be able to choose Netscape or Internet Explorer for all web-based services. When a password-protected service is launched, a separate window will show the user's security (Kerberos) status.

The new Bear Access can be installed wherever the user wishes, and each service will remember its installed location. If the user moves a service, Bear Access will request and record its new location. When a user launches a service that needs to be downloaded or updated, a message will provide such details as the names, locations and sizes of the needed files. Also, error messages will be more descriptive.

The infrastructure behind Bear Access will change from the current Mandarin technology to a more powerful Java-based architecture called SALSA. Since Java can run on Windows and Macintosh, it will be easier and faster to develop and update Bear Access services.

Because of these major changes, the current Bear Access cannot be automatically updated to the new version. Current Bear Access users will need to download and install the new version. (New users will automatically get the new version.)

Look for details in the June 4 Chronicle, or check http://bearaccess.cit.cornell.edu.